Cormac fought to keep his face nonreactive, but his pulse began that harsh bounce in his neck. “A guy on the screen?”
Fuck all, they’d found him. Fuck, fuck, fuck all.
Teddy rolled her eyes to let him know he wasn’t fooling anyone. “Yeah, the guy with the scruffy dark beard, beady black eyes, who looks like he bathes once every full moon cycle and goes by the name of Andre, if I caught it right before you turned the computer off. What is it you don’t want me to see?”
Shit. She had seen. Andre was one of Stas’s goons. One of the motherfuckers responsible for hacking off his finger.
So Andre had finally come to take him out, which meant Stas and whomever he worked for had found him and decided his time on earth was due to come to an end.
Fuck. How the hell had they found him after all this time?
He liked it here. It was as close to safe as he’d felt in the three years he’d been on the run.
So he played dumb. “You’re sure it was the same guy?”
Teddy’s eyes narrowed in suspicion as she set the mug down and folded her hands together, her slender fingers curling into a ball. “I already said it was. So who is Andre and why does he want you dead?”
Because he works for my sister’s psychopath ex-boyfriend and I know sensitive information about him. What was the right answer here? What if Teddy worked for these murderers?
That makes absolutely no sense. She would have just let Andre take you out and skipped on down the mountain all sexy and sassy. She sure as hell wouldn’t have let him knife her in the gut for you just for show, fool.
His eyes went to Wanda, who clucked her tongue and intervened. “You saw his face. Did he see yours, Teddy?”
“Well, yeah,” she scoffed with a snort. “I was on top of him, demanding who he was. Looked right at me before he jammed the knife in my side.”
Nina smiled on a grunt as she nudged Teddy’s shoulder with her own. She held up her fist for a bump. “You are one bad muthafluffin’ bitch. Gimme one.”
Teddy grinned for the first time then, and it was exquisite. The upward turn of her lips changed the map of her face entirely as she fist-bumped with Nina, punching him hard in the gut with more feels.
Stop getting the cuddlies over Teddy. She could well be the enemy.
Make up your damn mind. You can’t have it both ways. Either I allow the warm-fuzzies to take hold or I think of her as a foe.
“Okay, that means we’re absolutely not safe here,” Wanda reminded. “First, this Andre is still wandering around out there, maybe waiting to take another shot at us. Second, he’s seen Teddy, which means she’s not safe either.”
Teddy held up a hand, rising from the couch with purpose. “Hold up now. Obviously this guy is a bad dude. And now he’s seen me. If I didn’t deserve to know why he was after Cormac before, I damn well do now. Now I’m in danger, too. But from what? Somebody better start talking before I take myself back down this mountain and find the local authorities.”
That’s more than fair, man, and you know it.
He opened his mouth for only a moment before Wanda intervened again when she rose and addressed them all with that air of authority she was so good at. “How about we do this instead. It’s painfully obvious we can’t stay here any longer. Andre is wild and free out there and he’s seen both Cormac and Teddy. So let’s go back home, where I know we can keep you safe.”
“You’re from New York,” Teddy said. “I can’t go to New York. I have family who’ll worry. A job. A—”
“A life you hope to keep? A family you don’t want to endanger?” Wanda asked, her eyebrows furrowing on her smooth forehead.
Teddy conceded with a sheepish admission, driving her hands into the pockets of her bloodied vest, “Okay, that’s fair. But New York?”
“Yes, New York. Stop saying it like it’s the Andes, for the love of Pete,” Wanda chided. “We’ll do our best to get this over and done with as soon as possible and you’ll be right back here in Colorado before you can say pic-i-nic basket.”
“If I’m going to New York, I at least deserve to know what the hell is going on!”
Cormac heard the rise of panic in Teddy’s voice, saw the bright patches of crimson on her cheeks, and found he wanted to ease her fear. “I promise I’ll explain everything when we get there, Teddy. But we don’t really have a choice at this point. Please come with us. I couldn’t live with myself if you were hurt again because of me.” There. He’d said it. That was the truth.
Her face went from panicked to pacified in seconds, but she only nodded her agreement.
Wanda’s nod was brisk. “Good enough. Nina, call Archibald—tell him we’re headed to the castle and we need him to meet us there. Then call Darnell and ask him to contact Keegan to arrange the private plane. Tell him we have company. It’s time to end this once and for all.”